The Kirindi Oya Irrigation and Settlement Project (KOISP) in the Hambantota district is the largest project of this nature in Sri Lanka’s Southern Province. Whilst implementation of KOISP commenced in 1979 and in 1982 it was reformulated in two phases when the original appraisal ran into difficulties due to unacceptable cost overruns. Among the major criticisms leveled at the KOISP was its commencement despite the lack of adequate preliminary investigations as to the optimal location of a major reservoir on the Kirindi Oya and without taking into account all the possibilities for incorporating into the delivery system the small tank communities that exist within the command area of such a reservoir. KOISP has often been subject to the manipulation of special interest groups and that has placed constraints on the possibilities for participatory development. Therefore this study on farm support services in the KOISP area carried out as a mid-project evaluation exercise offers insights into the nature of the mechanism in place to rectify the inherent problems of the project. The study also serves as a challenge to the theoretical arguments which advocate reduced public expenditure on agriculture.